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(No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 1.

J. G. DIXON. COLLAR AND GUFI DRYING APPARATUS. No. 431,766. Patented July 8, 1890.

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(No Model.) 3 Sheets-sheet 2.

J. G. DIXON. COLLAR AND GUFF DRYING APPARATUS. No. 431,766.

Patented July 8, 1890'.V

WITNESSES:

' ATTORNEY-s.

(No Model.) 3 Sheetsf-Sheet 3.

J. G. DIXON. COLLAR AND GUPPDEYING APPARATUS. No. 431,766. Patented July 8, 1890.

BY v

ATTORNEYS.

' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN G. DIXON, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO HER- MANN IVILOK, OF SAME PLACE.

COLLAR AND CUFF DRYING APPARATUS'.

SPECIFIGAIIOII forming part of Letters Patent IIa-131,766, dated July 8,1890.

Application filed November 10, 1887- Serial No. 254,843. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

' Be it known that I, JOHN G. DIXON, a citizen of the United States of America, residing in New York city, State of New York, have invented a new and-useful Drying-Machine, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an improvement in apparatus for drying collars and cuffs, and has for its object to so bring currents of hot air in contact with the articles to be dried that no portion of such heated air'shall be allowed to escape without bearing away its due proportion of moisture; also, to facilitate the handling of the goods undergoing the drying process, to dampen the said goods preparatory to ironing, and finally the economizing of heat and space by condensing the dryingchamber to the smallest dimensions.

The invention consists in the novel construction, arrangement, and combination of parts hereinafter fully set forth, and pointed out in the claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar letters and figures of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the views.

Figure 1 is a longitudinal vertical section through the machine. Fig. 2 is a horizontal section above the tables. Fig. 3 is a transverse section on line o: no of Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a side elevation of one end of the trams or supporting-rails. Fig. 5 is a plan View of the same. Fig. G is a transverse section on line I y y of Fig. 1. Fig. '7 is a detail showing the carriers inclined for use in drying wool and like material.

In carrying out the invention the body 10 of the device is adapted for use as a dryingapartment, and consists of an'essentially-rectangular frame having a chimney at one upper end and provided wit-h a series of horizontal spaced and parallel baflie-plates 14 projected alternately from opposite ends, as illustrated in Fig. 1. By this means a hot-airgenerating chamber 12 is formed in the bottom and an upwardly-winding lIot-air passage or iue 13 leads from the lower chamber at a point a, which iiue 13 terminates in the aforesaid chimney 11. The body is preferably made of wood lined with any appropriate sheet metal; but the bathe-plates or partitions are made of sheet metal. The hot-air-geuerating chamber 12 is furnished with steampipes or other heating devices, and may be of any desired dimensions. Steam-pipes 35 are also placed on the plates formingA the flue 13 throughout its length. The airpassages or iiues between the partitions forming the same should be very shallow-for instance, from six to eight inches-and of a width a little more than equal to the length of the carriers 16. I prefer the width to be between five and SIX feet. Near the front and rear ends of the body sprocket-wheels 17 are suitably journaled, around which are passed endless chains 18, which chains, entering p a slot 19 in the chamber 12, pass upward through the flue 13, guided and supported by suitable pulleys 18, journaled in the body opposite the ends of the deflecting-plates, and also below the entering-slot 19 and a slot 20 below the chunney, adapted as an exit for the chain.

In suitable perforated links of the propelling-chain the frames or open shelves 16 are pivoted on 'suitable bearings, which shelves `or frames, for convenience, I call carriers, and which are adapted to receive light gauze screens 21. The carriers 16 are provided on their ends at diagonally-opposite corners, as shown in Figs. 1 and 5, with small tramwheels 22, revolving on spindles rigidly fixed to theframes in the position indicated in the drawings. The tram-wheels 22 are adapted to run upon tramways 23 and 23, placed inside and between the endless side propellingchains 18. The lateral position of the tramways relative, to the chains is maintained throughout; but the vertical position of the same is varied, so as to maintain the carriers 16 in any required position. This will be Inore fully explained farther on. It will be seen by reference to Figs. 1 and 5 thatwhile the carriers are moving in a horizontal direction they are supported entirely by the tramwheels running upon the tramways, which also prevent the propelling-chain from 'sagging. In ascending and descending, however, the weight of the carriers is partly upon the propelling-chain.

Starching-tables 24. are arranged on both IOO v sides of the chains and carriers, as best shown in Fig. 2, from which the collars and cuffs are taken when properly prepared and placed upon the carriers. These opposite lines of tables are connected to their frames by U- girders 24E, which pass underneath the'chains an d carriers, an d onv which the tramway at this point rest. By this construction the carriers will be about on a level with the upper surface of the tables to receive the trays, and their connecting-girders form the supports for tramways.

On the shaft connecting the main or drivingsprocket-wh eels a worm-wheel 25 is keyed, which meshes with a Worm upon a shaft 26, the said shaft being driven by abelt engaging the pulley 27. The driving-chain wheels above referred to are the only ones connected byashaft. All the supporting wheels or puileys revolve independently of each other on spindles rigidly iixed in the side walls of the body, or, where situated outside the hot-air fines, to head-blocks or floor-hangers 28.

A series of atomizers 29 are placed over and under the passing carriers, throwing spray from above and below, as indicated in Figs. l and 6, so as to dampen the collars and cuffs on both sides as they are borne past. The atomizers are supplied with water and either compressed air or steam in any approved manner.

The tramways, when passing through the upper part of the hot-air-generatin g chamber and the air-lines, are supported upon columns 30, and to the curved or switch ends ot' the tramways guard-rails 33 are connected and supported by plates 31, as shown in Figs. 4 and 5, or the tramways lmay be supported by brackets extending from the side walls of the body or casing.

The body or casing containing the hot-air chamber and flue is represented as supported above the starching-tables by posts. In practice, however, the drying-chamber may be better placed in a room on afloor above or suspended from the ceiling of the operatingroom,`if more practicable. y

The endless chains and the pivoted carrierframes carrying the screens, with the attached tram-wheels runnin gupon the tramways,when running horizontally, make up what might for convenience be called a sectional apron.

- When it is desirable to hold the carriers 16 in the same horizontal plane, as in passing the starching-tables, the tracks or tramways should be slightly under the level of the side chains, the exact distance to be determined by the size of the train-wheels used. The trunnions or journals of the carriers, as will be seen by reference to Fig. 5, extend across and above the tramways, and it is obvious that the chains cannot sink below the tramways nor the tramways rise above across the level of the chains without bringing about a collision with the trunnions on which the carriers are pivoted.

As it is necessary that the chains should sition. .fer to Fig. 4, where I make abreak ina tramcross one of the tramways in rounding the supporting-pulleys, (see Figs. 1 and5,) I arrange the same so that whenever it is necessary to make a break or gap in one tramway 23 for the trunnion of the carrier to pass the opposite tramway shall at that point remain unbroken, so that whenever the tram-wheel running upon the tramway 23 is left without a support then the diagonally-opposite t-ramwheel running upon the tramway 23, which is unbroken at that point, and also provided with a guard-rail 33, holds the carrier in po- To illustrate this more clearly, I reway 23 just where it begins to curve upward at the point l? suficient to allow the trunnion to pass freely through. Thus, when the carrier 16, with its trunnion pivoted in the perforated link of the chain, arrives at the point b, the trunnion passes through the opening and moves around the periphery ot' the pulley, while the tram-wheel is lifted from the track 23 and passes upwardly without a guidev until it strikes the downwardly-curved end of the upper tramway at b. While the tram is passing across the gap from the point b to point cthe carrier is held in placeby the diagonally-opposite tram-wheel running upon the opposite tramway 23a, in which there is no break until it reaches the point c, by which time the iirst-mentioned tram running upon the tramway 23 has arrived at the point c', where it is engaged by the guide-block 34, whereby the carrier is guided while the opposite tram is passing the gap c.

The guard-rails 33 are placed wherever the tramways curve as an additional precaution. As the journals upon which the carriers are pivoted are less than one inch in diameter, the gaps will be suiiicient if made about two inches in width.

It will be observed by reference to Fig. 1 that at the point where the driving sprocketwheels are situated and where the chains and carriers begin to ascend no brake or gap in the tramway 23a is required, as, owing to the inclination of the same, the trunnions of the ascending carriers clear the track and do not need to pass through the same. That portion of the tramway that has been running horizontal, curves upward, and the ascending tramway, curving downward, laps by the curving end of the lower tramway, constituting the switch or guideway through' which the tram-wheel passes. A gap is, however, necessary7 in the tramway 23 at this point, as thev trunnions of the carriers here passing or ascending from a horizontal to an inclined position must of necessity pass through the track, as at other points. The arrangement of the tramways at the descending points of the chain and carriers is upon the same principle, only reversed.

The rate of speed which it is desired that the sectional apron or carriers should travel -maybe varied by means of the cone-pulley 27. If the articles are to be exposed to the IOO IIO

heat for the same length of time it is evident that the faster the apron travels the greater must be the length of the hot-air passages through which it travels. Thus if the apron travels at the rate of four feet per minute, and if it must be exposed to the heat twenty minutes in order to dry the articles, then the hot-air passages should be four by twenty-or eighty feet long in all.

The manner of operating the machine is as follows: Collars and cuffs, afterbeing properly prepared on the starchingtables, are placed by operatives on the gauze screens, which screens are preferably rested upon the tables while being filled. The screens are then laid upon the passing carriers, bein g secured from slipping by small anges on their under side, which flanges extend downward and fit into the inner side of the carrierframes. As the carriers pass slowly in the direction indicated by arrows, Fig. l, the screens filled with the collars and cuffs are carried past the driving-chain or sprocketwlieels, and thence, ascending, enter the hotair chamber 12 through the slot 19, after traversing which they pass, as shown in Fig. l, into the hot-air liue 13 at the point a, and finally ein erge, fully dried, through a slot 20. Thence they descend and pass through the spray from atomizers, and are removed from the screens at the rear pulleys. The now empty screens are allowed to remain on the carriers until they arrive opposite to the operatin g-tables, where they are lifted off and filled screens put in their place.

Whenever it is not desirable to dampen the article being dried, the atoinizers may be shut O by closing the valves in the water and steam pipes leading thereto.

Should the machine be used for drying wool or other fibrous substances, it would be advantageous to pass the carriers through the hot-air passages in a tilted position, as shown in Fig. 7, to which I refer for the arrangement of the tramways necessary to vproduce this result. As the tilted carriers with their loaded screens would niore nearly fill the hotair lues, the hot air would have to pass through the fibrous substance in process of drying, the advantage of which will be evident. If necessary to increase the hot-air current, an exhaust-fan may be placed in the chimney 11. It will be observed that the liuc 13 is just sufficiently deep to allow tlie carriers and chains to pass, which is a decided advantage in a drier, creating a current of hot air and bringing the hot air in decided contact with the articles to be dried; and it will also be apparent that as the closely-approaching metallic plate or partitions which form the shallow hot-air flue absorb heat from the steam-pipe 35, resting upon them, they in turn give out and v from their proximity to each other subject the closely-passing collars and cuffs to their radiant heat.

I ain aware that carriers adapt-ed to bear screens suspended from endless side chains and kept in a horizontal position by gravity 'have been used heretofore in driers; also,-tl iat gauze screens have been vused 1n connection therewith. I ain valso aware that partitions in drying-rooms have been used to form 2h11'- passages and for deiiecting currents of hot air. I therefore do not claim such appliances, broadly.

Having thus fully described 'my invention,

what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

l. The combination, with a receptacle provided with a heat-generating chamber at the lower side and a chimney upon the opposite side and a series of closely-approaching d eecting-plates within the receptacle projected from opposite ends, forming a winding iiue connecting the chimney and heating-chainber, of a series of winding tramways having gaps alternately at their bends, substantially as described, supported within the heatingchamber and winding flue, endless chains traversing the receptacle contiguous to the tramways, carriers pivoted to said chains, and train-wheels pivoted to opposite diagonal corneis of the carriers traveling` upon said tramways, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

2. The coinbinatiomwith the drying-chainber having inlet and outlet opening in its ends, of U -sliaped girders, tramways resting oii said girders and extending through the dryingchamber, and endless chains passing through and below said chamber and having carriers provided with trani-wheels traveling on said tramways, and the sprocket-wheels for said chains, substantially as set forth.

3. The combination, with the drying-chamberhaving opposite inlet and outlet apertures, sprocket-wheels, and the longitudinally-extending tramways below tlie drying-chamber and extending beyond the ends thereof around the sprocket- Wlieels and through the said chamber, said tramways having alternating gaps and guard-rails at their bends, of the endless cliainspassing aroundthe sprocket-wheels and following the line of the tramways within and below the drying-chamber, and the trayreceiving carriers pivoted between the chains and having diagonally-opposite wheels runring on the tramways, substantially asl set forth.

JOHN G. DIXON.

Witnesses:

MAX BAYENDORFER, DUNCAN CAMPBELL.

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